Six feet under

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blouen

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I don't want to be six feet under yet. I'm too young to be.:cool:
 

kofling

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to pop off or be a goner
 

astana.kz

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another good american english idiom for that would be to buy a farm, or simply, to buy it. for example: he bought it during a skirmish with the jerries. also, when somebody dies, they croak. to give up the ghost, to kick the bucket, to fall off one's perch, to bite the dust, to pop one's clogs - all of these idioms mean to die in colloquial american & canadian english. i'm sure brits, aussies, and kiwies if not use, then are at least familiar with the expressions.
 

Mad-ox

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six feet under - is this idiom used formal or informal ( colloquial) speech?

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Mad-ox

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Ok, in the meantime, I found the answer. It is used informal and in a humorous way.

e.g

These cigarettes will put Penelope six feet under.


Madox
 

Tdol

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And certainly not just dead to the world. ;-)
 

Dr.Habeeb

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:-D I think this idiom means that if a person is six feet under is out of date.
 

Reemy

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He is six feet under= He kicked the bucket= He cashed in his chips= He died.
 

pyoung

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Because it is the traditional depth of a human grave in the culture(s) of origin and usage of the idiom.
 

pyoung

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Dear BK:

I found this at The Straight Dope - Fighting Ignorance Since 1973 under the title, "Why is 'six feet under' the standard depth for burial?

That settled, where did the famed figure come from? Historians believe it dates to London's Great Plague of 1665. In Daniel Defoe's fictionalized account A Journal of the Plague Year, the diarist-narrator reports on an edict issued by the city's lord mayor in June 1665 requiring that all graves be made at least six feet deep to limit the spread of the outbreak. Even if Defoe's research wasn't perfect (his firsthand knowledge may have been less than reliable, as he was only five at the time of the epidemic), other sources largely back up his version of events; in any case, his book likely popularized the notion that proper burial entailed putting the body six feet under.

As a reward to myself for having resisted making lots more burial-related puns, I'll just mention that lawyers are buried 24 feet underground rather than 6. Why? Because deep down, they're real nice people.

References:

Colman, Penny, Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial (1994)

Iserson, Kenneth, Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? (2001)

Jackson, Percival, The Law of Cadavers and of Burial and Burial Places (1936)


True? Not? Who knows?

Petra
 

J.T

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I learned this idiom from one song.
 

theeexcellence

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We have the same in Pakistan. Though we usually use ''... the earth''.
''chhay fut zameen talay'' -- six feet under the earth.

The other idioms that relate to being dead that I know of are ''kick the bucket. give up the ghost, join the great majority, snuff it, meet one's maker, to be in the other world/gone/no more/over and done with/kicking the daisies''. And ''his/her days are numbered, got one's feet in grave'' for being near dying.
 
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